Apparatus, methods, and computer program products providing an indication of cyclic prefix length

Abstract

In one exemplary embodiment, a method includes: inserting an indication of a cyclic prefix length into a transmission; and sending the transmission. In another exemplary embodiment, a method includes: receiving a transmission; and processing the received transmission to obtain an indication of a cyclic prefix length.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method comprising:
 inserting an indication of a cyclic prefix length into a transmission; and 
 sending, using the cyclic prefix length, the transmission in an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network, 
 wherein the transmission comprises a downlink reference signal, 
 wherein inserting the indication comprises generating the downlink reference signal dependent on an initialization value of a Gold sequence generator, and 
 wherein the initialization value comprises a field indicative of the cyclic prefix length. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , where the cyclic prefix length corresponds to one of a normal cyclic prefix length and an extended cyclic prefix length. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , where the indication comprises at least one of: at least a portion of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbol numbering that is modified, at least a portion of a subframe numbering that is modified, a frequency shift that is modified and a phase shift that is modified. 
     
     
       4. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions, execution of the program instructions by a processor resulting in the steps of performing the method of  claim 1 . 
     
     
       5. An apparatus comprising:
 a processor; and 
 a memory including computer program instructions, the memory and the computer program instructions being configured, with the processor, to cause the apparatus at least to perform: 
 insert an indication of a cyclic prefix length into a transmission; and 
 send, using the cyclic prefix length, the transmission in an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network, 
 wherein the transmission comprises a downlink reference signal, 
 wherein inserting the indication comprises generating the downlink reference signal dependent on an initialization value of a Gold sequence generator, and 
 wherein the initialization value comprises a field indicative of the cyclic prefix length. 
 
     
     
       6. The apparatus of  claim 5 , where the apparatus comprises a network node, an access node, a relay node, a base station or an eNode B. 
     
     
       7. The apparatus of  claim 5 , where the apparatus comprises a node of an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network. 
     
     
       8. The apparatus of  claim 5 , where the cyclic prefix length corresponds to one of a normal cyclic prefix length and an extended cyclic prefix length. 
     
     
       9. A method comprising:
 receiving and processing a transmission comprising a downlink reference signal in an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network, the received downlink reference signal being generated dependent on an initialization value of a Gold sequence generator, 
 wherein the initialization value comprises a field indicative of the cyclic prefix length used in the transmission, and 
 wherein the processing comprises obtaining the indication of the cyclic prefix length in the received downlink reference signal. 
 
     
     
       10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions, execution of the program instructions by a processor resulting in the steps of performing the method of  claim 9 . 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 9 , where the cyclic prefix length corresponds to one of a normal cyclic prefix length and an extended cyclic prefix length. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 9 , where the indication further comprises at least one of: at least a portion of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbol numbering that is modified, at least a portion of a subframe numbering that is modified, a frequency shift that is modified and a phase shift that is modified. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 9 , where the processing comprises calculating a correlation between the received downlink reference signal and at least one downlink reference signal replica. 
     
     
       14. An apparatus comprising:
 a processor; and 
 a memory including computer program instructions, the memory and the computer program instructions being configured, with the processor, to cause the apparatus at least to perform: 
 receive and process a transmission comprising a downlink reference signal in an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network, the received downlink reference signal being generated dependent on an initialization value of a Gold sequence generator, 
 wherein the initialization value comprises a field indicative of the cyclic prefix length used in the transmission, and 
 wherein the processing comprises obtaining the indication of the cyclic prefix length in the received downlink reference signal. 
 
     
     
       15. The apparatus of  claim 14 , where the apparatus comprises a mobile station or a mobile phone. 
     
     
       16. The apparatus of  claim 14 , where the apparatus comprises a node of an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network. 
     
     
       17. The apparatus of  claim 14 , where the cyclic prefix length corresponds to one of a normal cyclic prefix length and an extended cyclic prefix length. 
     
     
       18. The apparatus of  claim 14 , where the indication further comprises at least one of: at least a portion of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbol numbering that is modified, at least a portion of a subframe numbering that is modified, a frequency shift that is modified and a phase shift that is modified. 
     
     
       19. The apparatus of  claim 14 , where the processing comprises calculating a correlation between the received downlink reference signal and at least one downlink reference signal replica.